Pop Went the Ear

As I mentioned, on Thursday night Tad began clutching his ear in pain, conveniently after all doctor’s offices were closed.  I resolved to call our pediatrician first thing Friday morning to get Tad an appointment.  With as much pain as he was in, I was pretty sure he had an ear infection.

Friday morning (after a painfully restless night), the Webmaster asked Tad how his ear was feeling.  “It’s all better,” Tad told him.

Yeah, it was…. because the ear had ruptured during the night and there was blood and pus draining out of the ear canal.

Ewwww.

The Webmaster freaked out, panicked that he’d punctured his eardrum without any of us seeing him by sticking a Q-Tip in there.  Ane, seeing the blood, asked what happened.  Me, being a huge nerd, told her that either a ceti eel had climbed into her brother’s ear during the night, or he had an ear infection.

I called the doctor’s office as soon as they opened at 8 am, and got an appointment for 8:45 am.  The Webmaster offered to work from home, which I took him up on immediately.  I nursed Rerun, got Ane’s lunch packed, and bundled Tad off to the pediatrician.

We didn’t see our regular pediatrician, but the one we did see was nice and friendly.  She took one look at Tad’s ear and said, “Oh, yeah, that’s popped,” and immediately wrote a prescription for amoxicillin.  Drugs!  Yay!

I took Tad to the pharmacy that we usually go to (Top Foods in Woodinville, for those of you in the know), got his prescription filled, and gave him his first dose before we even left the parking lot.

When we got home, I offered to make him anything he wanted to eat.  He asked for macaroni and cheese.  By the time I had made it, he was fast asleep on the couch.  Oh, well.  I called and canceled his speech therapy session, since he was in no condition to go, but I knew we’d have to try and make his ABA appointment, because they have a very strict cancellation policy – you have to give 24 hours notice or get charged for a missed appointment.  Since I didn’t know he was sick 24 hours earlier, that wasn’t going to help me now.  I let him nap until about an hour before his session, then woke him up, gave him Tylenol and macaroni and cheese, and then drove him to his session.  I’d say he was operating at about 70%, which was a significant improvement, but still not totally up to speed.

Tad has spent this whole weekend laying low, taking his meds, and barely eating.  His appetite has been pretty poor, and I’ve been trying to cater to him a little bit more than normal just to get some food in him.  He’s had a lot of peanut butter and mac ‘n cheese.

He has a follow-up appointment with the doctor he saw on Thursday, just to make sure that the ear is healing up properly and to give him the all-clear to go swimming again.  Fortunately, his class isn’t going swimming today – they are having their Valentine’s Day party instead.  So I will be helping out with that instead of hopping in the pool.  This gives his ear a little more time to heal, which is good.

In the meantime, Ane’s puffy eyes have gone away, but Rerun is still leaking out the nose.  Both boys stayed home from church yesterday to recuperate, along with their father, because the Webmaster’s throat has been killing him.  I made him take a nap once I got home from church, which helped – along with the many cups of tea and the doctored-up ramen I made for him.  I’m doing okay… for now.  I shall count my blessings.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 14th, 2011 at 2:21 am and is filed under Children, Mommyhood, Sick Days.
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